Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Prevalence and nature of multi-sensory and multi-modal hallucinations in people with first episode psychosis (2022)
Journal Article
Dudley, R., Watson, F., O'Grady, L., Aynsworth, C., Dodgson, G., Common, S., …Fernyhough, C. (2023). Prevalence and nature of multi-sensory and multi-modal hallucinations in people with first episode psychosis. Psychiatry Research, 319(2023), Article 114988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114988

Hallucinations can occur in single or multiple sensory modalities. This study explored how common these experiences were in people with first episode of psychosis (n = 82). Particular attention was paid to the number of modalities reported and whethe... Read More about Prevalence and nature of multi-sensory and multi-modal hallucinations in people with first episode psychosis.

Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices (2022)
Journal Article
Moseley, P., Powell, A., Woods, A., Fernyhough, C., & Alderson-Day, B. (2022). Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 48(5), 1066-1074. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbac054

Background and Hypothesis: Voice-hearing in clinical and nonclinical groups has previously been compared using standardized assessments of psychotic experiences. Findings from several studies suggest that nonclinical voice-hearing is distinguished by... Read More about Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices.

Hallucinations as a risk marker for suicidal behaviour in individuals with a history of sexual assault: a general population study with instant replication (2022)
Journal Article
Yates, K., Lång, U., Peters, E. M., Wigman, J. T., Boyda, D., McNicholas, F., …Kelleher, I. (2023). Hallucinations as a risk marker for suicidal behaviour in individuals with a history of sexual assault: a general population study with instant replication. Psychological Medicine, 53(10), 4627-4633. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722001532

Background Research has shown a strong relationship between hallucinations and suicidal behaviour in general population samples. Whether hallucinations also index suicidal behaviour risk in groups at elevated risk of suicidal behaviour, namely in ind... Read More about Hallucinations as a risk marker for suicidal behaviour in individuals with a history of sexual assault: a general population study with instant replication.

Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in People with First-Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP): a study protocol for a single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled feasibility trial (2022)
Journal Article
Dudley, R., Dodgson, G., Common, S., O'Grady, L., Watson, F., Gibbs, C., …Aynsworth, C. (2022). Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in People with First-Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP): a study protocol for a single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled feasibility trial. BMJ Open, 12(5), Article e061827. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061827

Introduction Hallucinations (hearing or seeing things that others do not) are a common feature of psychosis, causing significant distress and disability. Existing treatments such as cognitive–behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) have modest benef... Read More about Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in People with First-Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP): a study protocol for a single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled feasibility trial.

Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology (2022)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Moseley, P., Mitrenga, K., Moffatt, J., Lee, R., Foxwell, J., …Fernyhough, C. (2023). Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology. Psychological Medicine, 53(8), 3692-3700. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722000344

Background Experiences of felt presence (FP) are well documented in neurology, neuropsychology and bereavement research, but systematic research in relation to psychopathology is limited. FP is a feature of sensorimotor disruption in psychosis, hypna... Read More about Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology.

Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech (2022)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Moffatt, J., Lima, C. F., Krishnan, S., Fernyhough, C., Scott, S. K., …Evans, S. (2022). Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2022(1), Article niac002. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niac002

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs)—or hearing voices—occur in clinical and non-clinical populations, but their mechanisms remain unclear. Predictive processing models of psychosis have proposed that hallucinations arise from an over-weighting of p... Read More about Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech.

“Figuring out how to be normal”: Exploring how young people and parents make sense of voice‐hearing in the family context (2022)
Journal Article
Mayer, C., Dodgson, G., Woods, A., & Alderson‐Day, B. (2022). “Figuring out how to be normal”: Exploring how young people and parents make sense of voice‐hearing in the family context. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95(2), 600-614. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12381

Objectives Making sense of voice-hearing—exploring the purpose, cause, and relationship with voices—is seen as therapeutically valuable for adults, but there is a paucity of research with adolescents. Family intervention is recommended for young peop... Read More about “Figuring out how to be normal”: Exploring how young people and parents make sense of voice‐hearing in the family context.

Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Mechanisms Associated With Clinical and Nonclinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (2022)
Journal Article
Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Common, S., Dodgson, G., Lee, R., Mitrenga, K., …Fernyhough, C. (2022). Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Mechanisms Associated With Clinical and Nonclinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. Clinical Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026211059802

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are typically associated with schizophrenia but also occur in individuals without any need for care (nonclinical voice hearers [NCVHs]). Cognitive models of AVHs posit potential biases in source monitoring, top-d... Read More about Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Mechanisms Associated With Clinical and Nonclinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations.

Thinking about hallucinations: why philosophy matters (2021)
Journal Article
Wilkinson, S., Green, H., Hare, S., Houlders, J., Humpston, C., & Alderson-Day, B. (2022). Thinking about hallucinations: why philosophy matters. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 27(2-3), 219-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2021.2007067

Hallucinations research is increasingly incorporating philosophy or the work of philosophically trained individuals. We present three different ways in which this is successfully implemented to the enhancement of knowledge and understanding of halluc... Read More about Thinking about hallucinations: why philosophy matters.

Measurement practices in hallucinations research (2021)
Journal Article
Smailes, D., Alderson-Day, B., Hazell, C., Wright, A., & Moseley, P. (2022). Measurement practices in hallucinations research. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 27(2-3), 183-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2021.1999224

In several sub-fields of psychology, there has been a renewed focus on measurement practices. As far as we are aware, this has been absent in hallucinations research. Thus, we investigated (a) cross-study variation in how hallucinatory experiences ar... Read More about Measurement practices in hallucinations research.

Managing unusual sensory experiences: A feasibility trial in an At Risk Mental States for psychosis group (2020)
Journal Article
Dodgson, G., Aynsworth, C., Mitrenga, K. J., Gibbs, C., Patton, V., Fernyhough, C., …Common, S. (2021). Managing unusual sensory experiences: A feasibility trial in an At Risk Mental States for psychosis group. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 94(3), 481 - 503. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12323

Objectives To conduct a feasibility study on a new, tablet-delivered treatment for unusual sensory experiences in service-users with an At Risk Mental States for psychosis. Design A mixed method design was employed, using content analysis to investig... Read More about Managing unusual sensory experiences: A feasibility trial in an At Risk Mental States for psychosis group.

Cognitive and phenomenological characteristics of hallucination-proneness across the lifespan (2020)
Journal Article
Thompson, R., Hallas, L., Moseley, P., & Alderson-Day, B. (2021). Cognitive and phenomenological characteristics of hallucination-proneness across the lifespan. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 26(1), 18-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2020.1850435

The impact of age on hallucination-proneness within healthy adult cohorts and its relation to underlying cognitive mechanisms is underexplored. Based on previously researched trends in relation to cognitive ageing, we hypothesised that older and youn... Read More about Cognitive and phenomenological characteristics of hallucination-proneness across the lifespan.

A linguistic approach to the psychosis continuum: (dis)similarities and (dis)continuities in how clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers talk about their voices (2020)
Journal Article
Collins, L. C., Semino, E., Demjén, Z., Hardie, A., Moseley, P., Woods, A., & Alderson-Day, B. (2020). A linguistic approach to the psychosis continuum: (dis)similarities and (dis)continuities in how clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers talk about their voices. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 25(6), 447-465. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2020.1842727

Introduction: “Continuum” approaches to psychosis have generated reports of similarities and differences in voice-hearing in clinical and non-clinical populations at the cohort level, but not typically examined overlap or degrees of difference betwee... Read More about A linguistic approach to the psychosis continuum: (dis)similarities and (dis)continuities in how clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers talk about their voices.

Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing using a novel tabletised manual: a feasibility study (2020)
Journal Article
Dodgson, G., Alderson-Day, B., Smailes, D., Ryles, F., Mayer, C., Glen-Davison, J., …Fernyhough, C. (2021). Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing using a novel tabletised manual: a feasibility study. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 49(3), 287-301. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1352465820000661

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is a recommended treatment for psychotic experiences, but its effectiveness has been questioned. One way of addressing this may be to tailor therapy materials to the phenomenology of spec... Read More about Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing using a novel tabletised manual: a feasibility study.

Inner experience differs in rumination and distraction without a change in electromyographical correlates of inner speech (2020)
Journal Article
Moffatt, J., Mitrenga, K. J., Alderson-Day, B., Moseley, P., & Fernyhough, C. (2020). Inner experience differs in rumination and distraction without a change in electromyographical correlates of inner speech. PLoS ONE, 15(9), Article e0238920. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238920

Ruminative thought is a style of thinking which involves repetitively focusing upon one’s own negative mood, its causes and its consequences. The negative effects of rumination are well-documented, but comparatively little is known about how ruminati... Read More about Inner experience differs in rumination and distraction without a change in electromyographical correlates of inner speech.

Processing Speech and Thoughts during Silent Reading: Direct Reference Effects for Speech by Fictional Characters in Voice-Selective Auditory Cortex and a Theory-of-Mind Network (2020)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Moffatt, J., Bernini, M., Mitrenga, K., Yao, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2020). Processing Speech and Thoughts during Silent Reading: Direct Reference Effects for Speech by Fictional Characters in Voice-Selective Auditory Cortex and a Theory-of-Mind Network. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 32(9), 1637-1653. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01571

Stories transport readers into vivid imaginative worlds, but understanding how readers create such worlds—populating them with characters, objects, and events—presents serious challenges across disciplines. Auditory imagery is thought to play a promi... Read More about Processing Speech and Thoughts during Silent Reading: Direct Reference Effects for Speech by Fictional Characters in Voice-Selective Auditory Cortex and a Theory-of-Mind Network.

Voice-Hearing and Personification: Characterizing Social Qualities of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Early Psychosis (2020)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Woods, A., Moseley, P., Dodgson, G., Deamer, F., Common, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2021). Voice-Hearing and Personification: Characterizing Social Qualities of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Early Psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 47(1), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa095

Recent therapeutic approaches to auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) exploit the person-like qualities of voices. Little is known, however, about how, why, and when AVH become personified. We aimed to investigate personification in individuals’ earl... Read More about Voice-Hearing and Personification: Characterizing Social Qualities of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Early Psychosis.

Modeling perception and behavior in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: Support for the predictive processing framework (2020)
Journal Article
Kafadar, E., Mittal, V. A., Strauss, G. P., Chapman, H. C., Ellman, L. M., Bansal, S., …Powers, A. R. (2020). Modeling perception and behavior in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: Support for the predictive processing framework. Schizophrenia Research, 226, 167-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.04.017

Early intervention in psychotic spectrum disorders is critical for maximizing key clinical outcomes. While there is some evidence for the utility of intervention during the prodromal phase of the illness, efficacy of interventions is difficult to ass... Read More about Modeling perception and behavior in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: Support for the predictive processing framework.

‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices (2020)
Journal Article
Foxwell, J., Alderson-Day, B., Fernyhough, C., & Woods, A. (2020). ‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices. Consciousness and Cognition, 79, Article 102901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102901

Writers often report vivid experiences of hearing characters talking to them, talking back to them, and exhibiting independence and autonomy. However, systematic empirical studies of this phenomenon are almost non-existent, and as a result little is... Read More about ‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices.